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National safety conference held in Saskatoon

The agenda at this year’s annual
I.W.A. CANADA National Safety Con-
ference was a busy one. Held in Saska-
toon, Saskatchewan on July 12, 13, and
14, the conference gave I.W.A. dele-
gates from across the country a chance
to meet and discuss several important
issues related to health and safety.

The conference was hosted by I.W.A.
Local 1-184 of Saskatchewan, and the
two Manitoba affiliates; Local 324 (The
Pas) and Local 1-830 (Winnipeg).

On behalf of Local 1-184, President
Dennis Bonville greeted delegates to
Saskatchewan and also welcomed
several management representatives
who were invited to attend.

In addition to National Safety Coun-
cil Chairman Ray Dease’s presence,
Local 1-184 had 15 more visitors to the
conference, sponsored by employers
including Norsask in Meadow Lake,
Weyerhaeuser in Big River, Saskfor in
Hudson Bay and Carrot River, Shelter
Regent Industries in Estevan, Premier
Peat Moss in Carrot River and Beaver
Lumber in Saskatoon.

Brother Bonville said that the pres-
ence of both workers and manage-
ment from those operations is an ex-
ample of how relations are changing
in the workplace. He added that the
union is beginning to see a renewed
commitment by some employers and
that hopefully awareness on health
and safety issues will spread to all
workplaces in the province.

Bonville said that, in the 34 years
that he has been in the industry, work-
ers were not always perceptive to the
need for reform. He said that with
changing technology, today’s occupa-
tional health and safety committees
face even greater challenges.

One example of how the union is
playing a constructive role with man-
agement is the Weyerhaeuser Big Riv-
er sawmill operation, said Brother
Bonville.

There the union and the company
are embarking on a new joint program
to achieve workplace health and safe-
ty as a core value in all activities. Both
sides are joining to increase commu-
nication, promote activities and re-
sults of a more active accident pre-
vention program which will increase
leadership skills all around. Jointly
measured goals will be monitored on
an annual basis.

Sister Barb Byers, President of the

e Neil Menard, Na-
tional Ist V.P.

76,000 Saskatchewan Federation of
Labour, brought greetings to the con-
ference and thanked the I.W.A. for
bringing such an important event to
the province.

She said that the I-W.A. is a leader
in occupational health and safety.

“You have lead the way and have
not been afraid to challenge some of
the previous assumptions (about
OH&S),” said Byers.

Byers acknowledged that the I.W.A.
was a leader in the establishment of
the Employee and Family Assistance
Program long before other unions
looked at the issue.

Byers added that the conference
agenda, which also included topic ar-
eas such as disability management is-
sues and the duty to accommodate,
workers’ compensation, and critical
stress debriefing, are important issues
for the I.W.A. and the entire labour
movement.

She said that it is up to I.W.A. mem-
bers to get out there in the work-
places and communities and extend
the knowledge that they receive from
the conference.

Jeff Barr, Director of the Occupa-
tional Health and Safety Division for
the Saskatchewan provincial govern-
ment, was present to extend his greet-
ings on behalf of newly appointed
NDP Labour Minister Eric Klein.

He reminded those in attendance
that the Saskatchewan government,
under the NDP, was the first provin-
cial government in Canada to intro-
duce an occupational health and safe-
ty act over 20 years ago.

He said that the government of the

e Dennis Bonville,
President Local 1-184

e Barb Byers, Presi-
dent SFL

day is still committed to three purpos-
es of the act which are to inform
workers about the risks of their work
and their workplaces, give workers
the right to participate in decision
making on OH&S issues, and grant
workers the right to refuse work that
they believe is not safe.

Mr. Barr said that his division is
dedicated to enforcing existing legis-
lation and is trying to provide mean-
ingful support to OH&S committees.

Neil Menard, National First Vice
President of I.W.A. CANADA and offi-
cer responsible for health and safety,
gave greetings on behalf of national
officers and staff and encouraged ac-
tive participation in the conference.

He also welcomed management’s
first-time participation in an I.W.A.
safety conference.

“I think that this is very encourag-
ing,” said Brother Menard. “Manage-
ment will get a different look into
what we do in OH&S matters.”

On the conference’s opening day
there were two presentations. The
first one was on the topic of disability
management issues at MacMillan
Bloedel’s Somass sawmill division in
Port Alberni.

The presenters were I.W.A. Local 1-
85 member Scott Green who acts as a
Disability Management Coordinator,
MB's Industrial Relations Officer Jim
Ritchie and Doug Dollinger, Director
of Research at the National Institute
of Disability Management in Port Al-
berni.

In the afternoon the conference
swung to the topic of workers’ com-
pensation with an address by

e Amber Hockin-Jef-
ferson, CLC

e Bob Sass, U. of
Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan WCB chairman Stan
Cameron (see story page seven). That
was followed with a lengthy seminar
on workers’ compensation reforms
conducted by Amber Hockin-Jeffer-
son, Safety Director with the Canadi-
an Labour Congress and Wes
Norheim, a WCB Board member in
Saskatchewan.

On the second day of the confer-
ence the delegates and visitors split
into four workshops.

Tom Lowe, National I.W.A. Staff
Representative, instructed a work-
shop on introductory occupational
health and safety.

Another popular workshop was on
establishing and maintaining Employ-
ee and Family Assistant Programs.
MacMillan Bloedel’s Jim Stimson and
Brother Menard were the instructors.

Doug Jones, Health and Safety Di-
rector of CEP Local 76, put on a work-
shop on Critical Incident Stress De-
briefing. .

The largest workshop, with over 50
participants, was on the issue of se-
niority and the duty to accommodate.
It was conducted by National Fourth
Vice President Harvey Arcand. The
guest speakers were John Weir, Direc-
tor of Occupational Health and Safety
for the B.C. Federation of Labour and
Dave Miller, a Business Representa-
tive with Local 397 of the OPEIU in

Regina.

On the final day of the conference,
delegates attended a session where
they heard Bob Sass, a Professor from
the University of Saskatchewan, in a
rousing motivational speech.

[.W.A. searches for new strategies
concerning duty to accommodate

One of the hottest subjects con-
fronting trade unions these days is the
obligation and duty to accomodate in-
jured workers back into the work-
place. Unions are grappling with ex-
actly what to do and how to manage
this relatively new legal responsiblity
in light of existing seniority protection
clauses in collective agreements.

The I.W.A. is right in the thick of
things as forest workers are four
times as likely to be injured during
their career as the average worker in
the economy. In the future there will
be even more pressure on the union
to take injured workers into account -
not just from a benefits perspective
but also from the point of view that
labour must taking a leading role in
facilitating back to work programs.

Harvey Arcand, National Fourth
Vice President of I.W.A. CANADA
conducted a workshop on the duty to
accomodate at the National Safety
conference in Saskatoon. The guest
speakers were John Weir, Director of
Occupational Health and Safety at the
B.C. Federation of Labour and Dave
Miller, a business representative with
Local 397 of the OPEIU in Regina.

Brother Arcand said that the union
has a history of responding to issues
that effect the membership and has

worked hard to form policies in vari-
ous areas such as forest policy, work-
place reorganization strategies, Em-
ployee and Family Assistance
Programs, pension issues, long-term
disablities and various political issues.

He said it is now time for the union
to be more proactive in formulating
policies on reintegration of disabled
workers. Arcand said that legal
changes will eventually force unions
and employers to deal with these is-
sues and that it is better to act now to
avoid a situtation were government
bureaucrats are imposing their own
solutions.

“We are going to suffer at the hands
of bureaucrats and the courts if we
don’t get out and develop policies that
work and that accomodate the inter-
ests of all of our members,” said Ar-
cand. “We may be confronted with
rigid laws that might say that our col-
lective agreements have to be ignored
and that other people’s rights can be
violated to a considerably greater de-
gree and that seniority provisions may
be abrogated.”

He also said that what happens to
I.W.A. members over duty to accomo-
date issues is going to become a labour
relations issue of greater significance
before anything is accomplished.

| Me ae 7 ;
¢ LW.A. CANADA Fourth Vice-President Harvey Arcand conducted presenta-

tions and workshops on the duty to accommodate injured workers.

Brother Arcand acknowleged the
invaluable contribution that the Dis-
abled Forestry Workers Foundation of
Canada has made in giving a greater
profile to disablity issues. He also said
that the National Institute of Disabili-
ty Management and Research in Port
Alberni is now playing a leading role
in training Disability Management Co-
ordinators.

John Weir said that the duty to ac-
comodate means that “we are actually
trying to find our members jobs...
(and)...sometimes that involves con-
flicts between our members’ jobs.”

He said the idea of the duty to acco-
modate originated after the Second
World War. In 1948, the United Na-
tions’ Universal Declaration on Hu-

Continued on next page

IS
6/LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1996

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